GAA upbringing will help Ryder captain Harrington
PADRAIG Harringtom was conformed last week as European Ryder Cup captain for the 2020 event which tales place in the US at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
The three-time major winner was the clear favourite to succeed Thomas Bjorn after the other main candidate Lee Westwood indicated his preference to do the job in Rome in 2022.
Past captains Bjorn, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke made up three of the five-man selection panel, therefore it was no surprise Harrington got the nod.
Europe have dominated the Ryder Cup in the modern era, winning nine of the last 12 editions, so the pressure will be on Harrington to continue the winning run.
With a background steeped in GAA circles, team sport will be nothing new to the affable Dubliner. Harrington’s father Paddy was wing back on the Cork team when Louth defeated the Rebels in the final to claim the 1957 All-Ireland title. He was also in the Cork lineup 12 months earlier when Galway defeated them in the 1956 decider. Paddy was a Garda and when the job took him to the capital, he was the driving force and one of the founders of the Garda’s own golf club in Stackstown in Co Dublin.
On this beautifully appointed course in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains Paddy’s five sons were introduced to the game of golf which would make the youngest world-famous.
Padraig’s first love, however, was Gaelic football and he represented his local club Ballyboden St Endas and school Colaiste Eanna with distinction as a teenager.
From the age of 17 onwards, though, his sole focus was on the small ball game and the rest, as they say, is history.
He does, however, credit a large part of his golfing success to his early background in team sports.
Harrington’s goal over the next 18 months will be to create the platform where the stars of European golf can gell together successfully and perform to the best of their abilities.
Selecting the right people is only half the battle. Working out the chemistry in the group, figuring out which partnerships work best and keeping all those egos in check for the good of the group will be his biggest challenges.
He will have learned a huge amount from his great friend Paul McGinley’s captaincy at Gleneagles in 2014. At last year’s GAA annual Coaching Conference in Croke Park, McGinley openly admitted that his approach to the Ryder Cup captaincy was heavily influenced by how he had been shaped as a Gaelic footballer and hurler with Ballyboden St Endas.
Like Harrington, McGinley’s father Mick had played inter-county football with Donegal and indeed Paul may have excelled in the sky blue of the Dubs but for a serious knee injury sustained at the age of 19.
Harrington has been involved in all but one of the last 10 Ryder Cups - six times as a player and most pertinently three times as a vice captain. He will pick all the good pieces from the last three captains and learn from some of their failings.
McGinley and Bjorn’s tenures in charge are viewed as major successes, while Darren Clarke’s captaincy is seen as a failure. Like any sport, there are very thin lines and margins between success and failure.
As it stands Harrington possesses a fantastic sporting legacy. He won’t want to spoil it with an asterisk beside his Ryder Cup captaincy.
Safe to say the former Ballyboden St Endas clubman will leave no stone left unturned in pursuit of European glory in 2020.
Dublin manager Jim Gavin might even be recruited to the backroom team!